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Pre-Post-Undergrad Academic Plans

I've only one more essay to write in my undergraduate career, that meditation on fan fiction as a form of fans interacting with popular-cultural forms (books, television, movies, et cetera). This will be fun.

Yesterday, I talked to Dr. MacLaine. My Honours presentation is scheduled for the 8th of April at 10 o'clock. It will be 20 minutes long, and apparently should consist of three component stages:

• An introduction explaining just how I came to the point of writing this particular essay; a sort of genealogy, if you would.


• A five minute long overview of my thesis, in broad detail only.


• A conclusion in which I suggest future directions I can take my thesis.

This should be fun.

UPDATE: And before I forget, the last class of English 491 "Literature in/and the World" will be held at the local Swiss Chalet at 3 o'clock this coming Thursday. See you there!

An American Speaks Out

From Dan's livejournal, this excellent piece. We need constructive protest, not destructive or just plain nihilistic.

Why I Don't Trust Noam Chomsky on Politics

Noam Chomsky's opinions on Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge have helped to discredit him in my mind as any kind of credible expert in world political affairs. As Bruce Sharp wrote:

In the years since the Khmer Rouge were deposed, Chomsky has openly acknowledged their crimes. However, to the best of my knowledge, he has never publicly admitted his own mistakes. His frequent collaborator, Edward Herman, seems intent on avoiding the issues through silly semantic games: in an scowling critique of a review of Haing Ngor's book "A Cambodian Odyssey," Herman accuses the reviewer of "resuscitating an especially foolish propaganda claim" ... specifically, that the Khmer Rouge "'tried to exterminate... a majority of the population.'" He writes, "... if the Khmer Rouge aim was 'autogenocide,' it was unable to come anywhere near meeting its objective. The best overall survey of the period, by Michael Vickery, estimates 750,000 excess deaths in the Khmer Rouge era from all causes... on a population base of six to eight million." Apparently, as Sophal points out, Herman's logic is this: Since a paltry 750,000 victims did not constitute a "majority," then there was no autogenocide.